Mr. Barker

Food & Beverage

Wake Up to the Latest Breakfast Trends

By Ned Barker, President, Grill Ventures Consulting, Inc.

Apple fritters made to order. Fresh orange juice chilled with frozen OJ ice balls. Scrapple, sausage, ham, pineapple and apple kabobs coated with a honey apple-butter glaze. Whole turkey carved to order. These are some of the items served for breakfast recently at the Crowne Plaza in Reading, PA.

The orange juice adds a fresh/natural element to the offerings. The scrapple, apple butter and apple fritters deliver the region’s Pennsylvania Dutch flavors, and signal meaningful trend touch points, including “authentic”, “local” and even “ethnic”. The freshly roasted carved whole turkey is a great example of “dinner at breakfast”. These small touches tell the guest that the hotel cares. They set the hotel apart from its competitors. The guests are noticing, and the property’s RevPAR growth shows it.

Bacon and eggs? Sure. But latching on to breakfast trends in a creative way seems to be an easy way to show your guests that you care. Not to mention that it drives F&B sales at the same time.

Breakfast is important to everyone. In its 2011 food trends survey, the Food Channel reported that 95 percent of respondents viewed breakfast as very or somewhat important.

Breakfast is serious business, especially for hotels. Technomic, in a study done in conjunction with Hotel F&B, estimated hotel breakfast business to be nearly $10 billion a year. But it doesn’t stop there, because the value of complimentary breakfasts in the Select Service segment was not factored in. So figure a couple of billion more.

Breakfast may influence hotel selection in the Select Service category as well. Technomic’s The 2011 Hotel Food and Beverage Consumer Trend Report finds that when choosing a hotel, consumers say complimentary offerings such as breakfast and in-room coffee are more important to them than other amenities.

The “New Healthy”

Columbus, Ohio - 1982. That was the first time I created a healthy (low-calorie) menu. So, how does “healthy” make the trends list nearly 30 years later? Well, it’s not really the food or even the science that’s changed. In 2011 exercising in conjunction with fewer calories is still the answer to weight control. So what is actually new? “We” are. Our habits and our lifestyles. The “old healthy” menu translated to low calories then it to low fat, which evolved into low saturated fat. In the past decade low carb has dominated diet strategies.

What I call the “new” healthy may take these things into account, but it’s really reflective of more concern about ingredient origin, and it’s not necessarily weight-focused. This “new” healthy food (and beverage) approach is about values – it’s personal:

• Natural, Organic
• Nutrition
• Authentic
• Sustainable
• Local/seasonal

Usually this collection of items is treated as a separate category rather than part of the “healthy food” category. I chose include them under healthy because they’re connected to health, but the implications go beyond health. Sure, it’s about flavor. But it’s more than just culinary. It’s about my body, how I feel, about the chemicals and additives I’m consuming – or not.

In other words, it’s personal. This is important. If the “new healthy” is more than just culinary/diet trends, then maybe it offers a new way to form a relationship with your guests. Fairmont seems to understand this, and has carried personal health-related options a step further by offering item choices with attributes such as gluten-free, DASH compatible, vegan, macrobiotic and raw. All of these options are available at breakfast. And Westin is in the forefront of this trend with its SuperFoods menus (including breakfast) and its partnership with SuperFoodsRx™.

And exactly where does breakfast come in? Your guests are more likely to desire healthy food at breakfast than at any other time. In short, they care, and they’ll notice.

The Trump International Hotel & Tower (Chicago) launched an all-organic menu earlier this year, using Oregon Tilth (http://tilth.org) to certify its authenticity. It’s not a limited menu by any means. In fact breakfast selections span 8 pages, and pay homage to the other trends named in this article.

But you don’t need Donald Trump’s deep pockets to send “new healthy” signals to your guests. Many hotels are adding “new healthy” features and touches, and making menu statements that align their values with the “new healthy” driven guest. Atlanta’s Ellis Hotel boasts Organic Free Trade Coffee and a policy to utilize “Farm-To-Table, Sustainable, Organic whenever possible”. Elate Restaurant at the Hotel Felix in Chicago features Organic House-Made Granola on its breakfast menu, with a claim similar to the Ellis’, “We are Proud to Promote Local and Organic Products Whenever Possible”. There are other ways to relate to the “new healthy” guest, for example: the honey used during breakfast at the Boston InterContinental was harvested from the apiary on its roof.

Also don’t forget the kids. Many Four Seasons hotels and resorts offer gluten-free, whole wheat, soy milk, vegetarian and organic options in their kids’ menus.

Ethnic Flavors & Ingredients

There is no slowdown in the macro trend of “full flavor” that’s well into its second decade. That trend spilled over to breakfast some time ago. Yet we continue to see new flavors and ingredients emerging. Latin, Middle Eastern and Asian sources are mentioned often.

The 2011 National Restaurant Association’s What’s Hot in 2011 survey of more than 1,500 professional chefs, all members of the American Culinary Federation, listed “Ethnic-inspired breakfast items” among its top twenty trends overall, and number one in its list of breakfast trends. Examples included Asian-flavored syrups, chorizo scrambled eggs and coconut milk pancakes.

The NRA’s number two Chef-voted breakfast trend is “Traditional ethnic breakfast items”. They called out huevos rancheros, shakshuka (a dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, chili peppers, onions, often spiced with cumin), ashta (Lebanese Cream), Japanese-style (Japanese Breakfast served in a Bento Box?) as examples.

The Food Channel cited ethnic items too. Hispanic breakfast menus such as breakfast tacos made with ingredients such as chorizo, salsa and eggs, and quesadillas and burritos. One key here: the hand-held aspect of these items. Handheld options are more and more important to hotel guests, and they’re popping up on more hotel breakfast menus.

Also cited: European-style breakfasts. This is one trend that’s stronger in hotels than in any other type of foodservice venue. Cold cuts are popular on many breakfast buffets, but now we’re seeing bangers and mash, cheeses, and baked beans take their place on more menus in 2011. And European-inspired is not just for buffets. The Trump room service menu mentioned above offers a “European ‘Continental’ Breakfast”, as well as Greek, Scandinavian and Bavarian breakfasts.

Beyond Latin, Middle Eastern, Asian and European there is…your own location. If you can delight the guest with the foods and flavors of your own local region, and add a creative touch (apple fritters made to order?), the impact can be just as powerful.

Dinner at Breakfast?

THEN: when last I managed a single hotel food and beverage operation, our breakfast counts exceeded 150,000 a year, and our breakfast cooks were among the best. They had their own knives, egg pans, recipes and towels – and every night they were locked away where none of those (excuse my language) “dinner cooks” could get at them. Breakfast and dinner cooks didn’t see each other, and didn’t use much of the same ingredients, recipes or equipment.

NOW: breakfast, meet dinner.

That’s right. Cooking preparations and ingredients formerly reserved for dinner are showing up at breakfast. Breakfast restaurants, and some upscale hotels, are menuing traditionally popular dinner proteins such as sirloin, chicken, crab and salmon. The most popularly menued breakfast proteins, according to MenuTrends DIRECT™, are:

The NRA What’s Hot Chefs voted seafood breakfast items as the Number Five breakfast trend. They mentioned smoked salmon, oysters and crab cakes for breakfast. QSR ONEsource Magazine cites the growing popularity of Parmesan and goat cheese on breakfast menus.

The “dinner at breakfast” trend doesn’t end with proteins. Dinner entrée “formats” and preparation techniques are showing up at breakfast too.

The Food Channel lists breakfast pizza among its top trends for 2011. You can watch Chef Manfred Lassahn from the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel, prepares his breakfast pizza on YouTube if you like.

Lon’s at the Hermosa Inn Paradise Valley offers Arizona Baby Greens Steak and Egg Sliders served on a brioche bun. Society Café at Encore Las Vegas touts its “Ultimate Steak & Eggs” slider – filet mignon, scrambled eggs and creamed spinach on a bacon cheddar muffin.

ONEsource cites other preparation methods, including wood-smoked, oven-roasted and fire-roasted as breakfast entrée descriptors that are emerging.

Chilled Beverages – The Missing Opportunity?

It seems that there are more beverage categories today than there were beverage selections 20 years ago. The Food Channel trends report lists “Beverage Choice Choke” as its sixth trend for 2011. So what are we offering in our hotels at breakfast time? If it’s just the basic juices, milks and perhaps sodas, then you may have a great untapped opportunity.

And this may be especially relevant to the Select Service segment. For the last five years, the Select Service category has spent some considerable resources expanding their breakfast offering to include hot items. Was it the right direction? Perhaps. Or do beverage programs present an even larger opportunity?

Some beverage opportunities to consider:

• Smoothie of the Day (or, Make Your Own Smoothie)
• Energy drinks (have you looked at the health benefits of coconut water?)
• House-made vegetable juices
• Juices squeezed in front of the guest
• Flavored ice cubes
• House-made sodas (so many options within this class, including “made at the table”, “savory sodas”, “soda & food pairings”, and “make your own flavor”
• Horchata - a chilled Mexican beverage made of rice, almonds, cinnamon and sugar (believed to be a great hangover cure and is most commonly served at breakfast time)

Where do I Start?

If your breakfast offering is a bit stale and you want to update it, consider these suggestions:

1. Don’t try to be everything to everyone and don’t try to implement every trend. Focus on what’s right for you and your culinary and service teams. Specialize. Be memorable at just one thing rather than average at several things
2. Understand your audience and know your region, like they do in the Reading, P.A. hotel mentioned earlier.
3. Healthy, ethnic and “dinner” are real breakfast trends and should be seriously considered – but don’t ever leave flavor and quality behind. 

Ned Barker is a hotel industry veteran and principal of Grill Ventures Consulting, Inc. (www.GrillVC.com). As Vice President F&B Franchise Services for InterContinental Hotels Group Ned developed programs that are found in more than two thousand hotels today, and remain cornerstones of the their hotel brands. He wrote or re-wrote the F&B Standards for 3 hotel brands, engaged the IHG franchise community through the creation of the F&B Council, which still meets today. In 2005 Mr. Barker founded Grill Ventures, which specializes in F&B, for both hotel and restaurant companies. GVC’s work ranges from full concept development to operations/marketing review & analysis, to special one-off project assignments. Clients, past and present, include IHG corporate, IHG branded hotels (InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts), Hyatt Regency, Choice International, Kona Grill, Four Points by Sheraton, Cooper Hotels, Carr Hospitality and others. Mr. Barker can be contacted at 404-547-1900 or ned@grillvc.com Extended Bio...

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